Hispanic Chicago: A Time And Place For Celebracion`

Notable Places Around Town

September 14, 1990|By Text by Judy Hevrdejs.

There are a number of notable places around the city celebrating Hispanics, among them:

The Mexican Fine Arts Center-Museum, 1852 W. 19th St., 738-1503. When this museum opened its doors at its Pilsen location in 1987, it became the first Mexican cultural center-museum in the Midwest. When the museum opened its multi-arts performance space earlier this year, it also made the complex the largest such museum in the region.

It`s also one of the busiest. Regularly changing shows fill the exhibition hall and the gallery, and live performances are staged often in the theater space. Besides all that, there`s a wonderful shop called Tzintzuntzan which overflows with arts and crafts from Mexico.

The current exhibit, ``The Textiles of Mexico, Guatemala and Panama,``

will be open only through Sunday. The next show will be the museum`s annual

``Day of the Dead`` exhibit, scheduled to open Oct. 5. Oils by Alfredo Arreguin are currently on display in the gallery.

Murals: Chicago`s Hispanic energy bursts forth from dozens of colorful murals, especially in the Pilsen neighborhood around 18th Street and Ashland Avenue, and along 26th Street, and in Little Village (La Villita) from the arch marking the neighborhood`s entrance, on 26th Street just east of Kedzie. In Pilsen, be sure to check the murals at Casa Aztlan, 1831 S. Racine St., where the cultural changes in the area are represented.

Heroes: A statue honoring Mexican president Benito Juarez, called the

``Abraham Lincoln of Mexico,`` is located in the plaza just north of the Wrigley Building.